Hey y’all! It’s Wednesday and that means a short post day. Just a quick update for now. I guess our biggest news is that my folks have arrived for Christmas. They rolled in around 3 pm this afternoon. We’ve been slowly getting ready for this visit, but we’re never completely prepared. I suppose we’re good enough for puttin’ the feet up and relaxing. Witness the patriarch in his normal position after driving for around 6 hours today. With a rum and coke already polished off by the time I got home from work. Guess we’re all ready for the holiday. Continue reading
relaxin’
19 Wednesday Dec 2018
Posted in Musings
We’ve kinda hit the doldrums around here. As I started thinking about this post, I looked up, first, the spelling, then, some photos. I’m not a seafarer, so I don’t use this word in my everyday lexicon, and I wanted to spell it dulldrums – because I associate the word with dull times – but I found differently. I still don’t know the origin, I didn’t want to spend that much time, but I did find that it refers to a specific area in the equatorial region that experiences ocean calms, but can also be plagued with sudden storms and light, unpredictable winds. In the more modern usage, it’s come to refer to a time of waiting; waiting for something to happen so you can go on to the next step. That’s sorta us. Crazy times, man. 
We live in the U.S., so of course this is a U.S.-centric blog. I use Fahrenheit as opposed to Celsius when I’m talking about weather temp in degrees, I use feet and inches, rather than metrics, I refer to the U.S. calendar when I’m talking about seasons and holidays. So, I hope that doesn’t offend anyone too awfully, but if you’re reading this blog, you’ll just have to put up with it I suppose. The reason I bring this up, is that tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. and I think I’ll probably be talking about thankfulness today. 
I cannot believe we are halfway through November. I can’t believe that we’re less than a week from Thanksgiving (US). This year has completely flown by and it feels just unreal to me. So many things have been going on, I guess it just makes the time go by so quickly. Seems like last week was January, and here we are almost to Christmas! There are some other things I can’t believe as well… 
I keep saying that there’s not a lot of big projects going on; maintenance, maintenance, maintenance; and not much happening, but you know that there are always small things happening every single day. Sometimes it’s just difficult to make those small things into an interesting post – but I did say that I’d talk about what’s been happening around the farm, so let’s do that. There are good things happening in small packages, and a couple sad things as well. 
I don’t know how you felt when you were a teenager and had just received your driver’s license, but when that happened for me, I was scared. I think I may have been an odd kid, but I really didn’t want to get my license. Yes, it was going to be good to be able to drive myself to choir, and youth group, and play rehearsals so my folks wouldn’t have to schlep me around all the time, but I was honestly afraid of driving. Don’t get me wrong, I was a fine driver, my dad taught me well and I had driven many things on the farm – drove a Caterpillar tractor starting at 9 – but not on public roads! You can hurt people!!!! Driving is a form of freedom, but it is also a major responsibility. I was scared, but I did have the courage to use my newly given freedom. I think maybe that fear made me a better driver; I certainly wasn’t cavalier about it —- until much later. Freedom is scary. 
Not sure that pizza night has anything to do with farming, or chickens – since we didn’t do BBQ chicken pizza – but it was the evening’s fare. Sue had been craving it, so at breakfast, we made our dinner plan for pizza. Unfortunately, today was a late work day so dinner came later than normal. We both made it to dinner time, though, without withering away. And there is nothing like fresh baked pizza from your own oven. YUM-O! It felt especially indulgent because we each made our own, and this was a week that warranted a great, greasy, cheesy pizza – for me anyway. Not a banner week at work, but definitely a great week on the farm! 
Have I ever mentioned that I am not a morning person? Well, I am not. I never have been. I am more of a late night person, so I am very slow to wake and get to a functional state in the morning; usually this involves copious amounts of coffee. This can pose some problems on the farm – especially in summer. Sue, however, is a very early morning person. She’s always up before dawn, the only time I’m up before dawn is in mid-winter, when dawn comes around 7:00! I’m trying to regulate for morning, especially now when I’m staying home 3 days during the week. It’s just so much cooler (temperature wise) in the morning that we’ve got to do actual physical work then. How’s that working out for us? Let’s look at the last three days and see where we are, and where we’re trying to go this week. 
Sue gave me the idea for today’s post and I’m so grateful because I hadn’t truly thought of a good subject. I know, I know – over thinking again. Here’s how it works. Before I start blogging I ask Sue if she has any photos for me from the day, if so- she sends them over and talks about the happenings of the day. If not, we talk about the happenings of the day and I go take a couple shots of the subject matter. Then I try to come up with an overall “theme”. If you’re a regular reader, you know that sometimes
Midweek roundup! Well, update anyway. I had promised some photos of the RCW because Sue had been working so hard to get it completed. The goal is still to get it out in the field this weekend with the chickens out there and the fence up. Here are a couple of photos, inside and out! Sue isn’t really sure of about the Fire Engine red (called “Safety Red” on the cans) but i think it’s GREAT! And the inside looks amazing as well. She and Dustin are adding another couple of window on each side for 
as much ventilation as possible, because it is getting pretty hot in there at this point in time. Want to make sure as much breeze comes through as possible. The flashing looks great along the bottom, don’t you think? Looks so spiffy and clean. Also – love the red ramp!!! “High ceilings and low floors.” Trying to decide what we should paint on it for the decoration portion. Do you remember that at first I wanted to decorate it like a Romney caravan wagon – that’s why I call it the Romney Chicken Wagon… but lately I’ve been leaning more to something a bit more modern. I mentioned the huge sunflower I envisioned immediately when Sue sent texted me a photo of the first coat of red. A few days ago I was thinking I could maybe do a fun chicken head on one side… So, this is what I’m talking about:
Wing and a Prayer 